Students examine major works of literature organized into thematic units. Each unit contains poetry, short stories, and a novel that revolve around the theme for the unit. Themes include the self, relationships, alienation, choice, and death. As students read these works, they have the opportunity to reflect on these important themes by writing in multiple modes and creating cross-disciplinary projects. As an Honors course, emphasis will be placed on additional reading and writing project-based instruction. Students will integrate the 6-Traits of Writing (i.e., ideas and content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions) to all of their writing.